Banks, Financial Industry | featured news

Investments that were vulnerable in the last financial crisis and believed to be gone for good have largely escaped new rules that were made to prevent another crisis.

Steady earnings growth on Wall Street could embolden the lawmakers and regulators who want to overhaul the banking system.

A judge on Tuesday approved a set of settlements among Lehman Brothers entities that will allow the company's defunct brokerage to pay back about $15 billion in customer claims.

A Senate panel has issued a scathing assessment of JPMorgan's $6.2 billion trading loss last year. The investigation found that bank officials ignored growing risks and hid losses from investors and federal regulators.

The new head of UBS's investment bank Andrea Orcel received a $26m (£17m; 20m euros) "golden hello" in 2012, the bank's annual report has revealed. Mr Orcel is in the process of overhauling the investment business, with 2,000 job losses expected.

Europe has spent hundreds of billions of euros rescuing its banks but may have lost an entire generation of young people in the process, the president of the European Parliament said.

The European Central Bank has left its benchmark interest rate unchanged at a record low of 0.75 percent, holding off on further stimulus even though the euro area remains stuck in recession.

Discover Financial Services is adding checking accounts to its array of financial-services products as the credit-card lender continues to build out its online bank.

US bank JP Morgan Chase reveals plans to cut up to 19,000 jobs by the end of next year in its mortgage and community banking businesses.

Punishing the bankers who brought on the financial crisis has proved distressingly difficult. None have gone to jail. A few young traders, who hid their post-crash losses and thereby stole from the banks, are behind bars. The rest are untouched by the tragedy.